What to Check in Your Booking Contract Before You Sign

A booking contract is usually the first real paperwork you see once a hold turns into a confirmed job, and it's often the document freelancers skim fastest — right when it matters most. Here's what to actually check before you sign.

Payment terms

Confirm the term itself — NET30, NET60, or something else — is stated explicitly. If it isn't in the contract at all, that's a gap worth raising before you sign, not after you've already submitted an invoice and are waiting to find out.

Also check what the clock actually starts from. Payment terms are usually measured from your invoice date, but some contracts tie them to a different milestone — delivery, wrap, or approval. That distinction can shift your actual pay date by weeks depending on how it's worded.

Rate and unit

Confirm the contract states your rate the way you agreed to it — daily or hourly — and that the unit matches what you expect to be billing against.

Overtime and weekend rates

If you're likely to work weekends or beyond a standard day on this job, that needs a specific number in the contract, not a verbal understanding. A common structure is a premium rate — 1.5x your standard rate is a typical example — for weekend or overtime work. If the contract is silent on this and the job runs long or bleeds into a weekend, you're negotiating after the fact instead of pointing to something you already agreed on.

Time-tracking requirements

Some studios require you to log hours in a specific system — Workbook and similar production-tracking software are common examples. If the contract mentions a required tool, get access to it early and confirm how your logged hours are expected to map to your invoice, so the two don't end up disagreeing with each other later.

Requested days off

If you know you need specific days off during the booking — a prior commitment, travel, anything — that needs to be raised before you sign and reflected in the contract itself, not handled as a casual heads-up partway through the job. A day off that's written into the contract is a non-issue. A day off you mention for the first time once the job has started is a scheduling problem for the studio and a credibility problem for you.

Kill fees and cancellation terms

If the job is cancelled or your dates are released after you've already turned down other work to hold them, check whether the contract says anything about compensation for that. Not every contract includes this, but it's worth knowing either way before you sign.

Why this is worth the extra ten minutes

A booking contract is usually short, but it's doing a lot of work — it's the document you'll point back to if a payment dispute, a scheduling conflict, or an overtime disagreement ever comes up. Reading it closely before signing costs you a few minutes. Not reading it closely can cost you weeks of ambiguity later, on exactly the points above, when there's no longer a clean answer in writing to settle it.

Once your rate, payment terms, and overtime structure are locked in, Firsthold's Invoice Management turns them directly into an invoice — day-by-day rate breakdown, NET terms, and all — instead of you rebuilding that structure by hand for every new contract.